TORONTO, CANADA—The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to announce that acclaimed Japanese manga creator Inio Asano will participate in TCAF as a Featured Guest of the 2018 Festival, to be held May 12-13, 2018, in Toronto Canada. Asano will travel from Japan to Canada in support of the new manga Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, the first volume of which will be published in English by VIZ Media this April.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Asano-sensei to TCAF,” said Christopher Butcher, the Festival’s Artistic Director. “Inio Asano has been one of my favorite mangaka since VIZ released solanin in English, a book I absolutely love. Inio Asano has a wide variety of stand-alone manga and series in print, and manga fans and TCAF’s audience of graphic novel and alternative comics fans will find much to love.”

TORONTO, CANADA — The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to unveil its initial programming for Kids and Teens at their 2018 Festival, with great graphic novelists and programming for young readers! TCAF 2018 will Feature more than a dozen internationally celebrated authors of work for kids, and middlegrade and young adult readers! Better still, TCAF will feature two full days of programming for young people this year, completely free to attend! It’s an amazing year for young readers and aspiring young authors to attend the Festival!

Keep reading for the full list of Featured Creators and Kids and Teen Programming highlights!

How much do you love comics? Do you love comics in a way that makes you get up in front of audiences to talk about them? To run a comics workshop or moderate a comics discussion? Well then you’re in luck – The TCAF 2018 Call for Programming is now open!

TCAF 2018 – The Toronto Comic Arts Festival

TORONTO, CANADA — The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is very excited to announce the initial Northan American Featured Guests and Events for TCAF 2018! With over 350 cartoonists from more than 15 countries on their way to Toronto this May, we’re set to celebrate the very best in comics, graphic novels, bandes dessinées, and manga! Get ready for a week of readings, launches, and art events culminating in a massive, FREE two-day exhibition at Toronto Reference Library, May 12th and 13th, 2018! Tell your friends!

Every year the Toronto Comic Arts Festival showcases Canada’s most incredible comics talent on a world stage by promoting top tier creators and publishers, and inviting the attention of the global cartooning community. The 2018 programme builds on our previous successes, with a continued commitment to offer more inclusive and engaging programming, in multiple formats, focusing on compelling and challenging work being made across the world and right here in Canada! We’re proud to spotlight a wide variety of incredible Canadian cartoonists with exciting new projects debuting at TCAF.

Keep reading to see two incredible official TCAF posters by Canadian cartoonists, an amazing variety of Featured Guests, and even TCAF’s very first Opera project! It’s going to be an incredible year for The Toronto Comic Arts Festival!

TCAF, along with our partners Ensemble contemporain de Montreal (ECM+) and Continuum Contemporary Music, are thrilled to bring you Hockey Noir, a multimedia chamber opera. Set in the 1950s, the classic hockey rivalry between Toronto and Montreal takes centre stage with a side of organized crime. Love, lust, scandal, blood, betrayal – in sudden death, who wins and who loses is determined not by fate but by the final shot!

Hockey Noir was written by TCAF Featured Guest Cecil Castellucci, and features artwork by Toronto illustrator Kymberlyn Porter. Showtimes are May 10th and 11th at 8pm, and a 2pm matinee on May 11th. For more info and tickets, check out continuummusic.org.

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival exists to promote Canadian Comics and Culture at home and abroad year-round. This year TCAF will be traveling with a dozen cartoonists from Canada, as well as other friends and associates, to put on our biggest displays in Japan yet. Event information, including WHICH artists are participating at WHICH events, and Artist bios are below. TCAF in Tokyo header by Kagan McLeod.

Quebec-based art collective En Masse returns to Tokyo with a complete gallery takeover and installation of art! Led by En Masse’s Rupert Bottenberg and Kim Hoang, this installation will feature large-format collaborative artworks deriving from comics, illustration, and painting traditions. Participating artists include the complete range of visual artists from TCAF’s Tokyo trip, as well as Tokyo-based and Japan-based artists working in a variety of disciplines.

Installation takes places on November 24th from 1pm-6pm, and viewing may be possible at this time. Show is fully open to the public from November 25th to December 10th.

Solo exhibition of Toronto-based comics creator Mike Parsons as he explores Japan’s rich ‘Eroguro’ artistic tradition. Show runs Tuesday to Saturday, with an opening reception on Tuesday the 21st. For more info check out the Facebook event!

Kaigai Manga Festa is Tokyo’s first comics event celebrating worldwide comics! Creating relationships between Japanese and International comics creators, Kaigai Manga Festa (or Tokyo International Comic Festival) features more than 40 artists from more than a dozen countries around the world.

Comic Art Tokyo is a show modeled somewhat after TCAF, and so we’re honoured and thrilled to be participating. Focusing on artcomix, indy and underground comics in Japan and abroad, CAT will feature a range of workshops and special presentations, including an onstage interview with Gekiga master Tadao Tsuge!

For this event, TCAF will have a full ‘Canadian Pavilion’, as we take over Temple University’s Azabu campus cafeteria! We’ll be showing Canadian comics videos all day, have three feature presentations (including Canadian Comics Readings, The History of Koyama Press, and An Nguyen talking about her collaborative work So Pretty, Very Rotten). Participating exhibitors at this event include: The Beguiling, Koyama Press, An Nguyen, Andrew Wheeler, Bryan Lee O’Malley & Jason Fischer, Emily Carroll, Freddy Carrasco, Hello Boyfriend, John Gehron, Kim Hoang, Maiji, Mike Parsons, Natalie Andrewson, Rupert Bottenberg, and Tim Kiefer.

Brave & Bold is a live-art and artist alley event and showcase, featuring a dynamic range of international artists centered around “AmeComi”, or American Superhero and Genre comics. A chance to meet artists and get commissioned work from them, mostly for Japanese fans, and a chance to see live drawing and more.

Tokyo Comic-Con is a large-format media-focused American-style Comic-Con, founded by Stan Lee, Steve Wozniak, and a bunch of other folks. TCAF is looking forward to promoting Canadian creators and their works, and ‘revealing’ which artists that already have work translated into Japanese are ‘secretly’ Canadian!

TCAF will be participating on all 3 days of the Festival, though some guests will not be available every day. Participating creators at this event include: Bryan Lee O’Malley (Fri & Sat Only), Jason Fischer, Tim Kiefer, Ramon Perez (Fri & Sat only), Marcuz To, Andrew Wheeler, Jim Zub & Steven Cummings. In addition, on Friday and Saturday we will be welcoming very special guests The National Cartoonists Society at the TCAF booth, represented by NCS President Steve McGarry and member Luke McGarry!

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Festival Staff

TCAF will be represented at these events by staff including Jocelyne Allen, Peter Birkemoe, David Brothers, Cassi Burrel, Christopher Butcher, Jarrett Samson, and Mimmy Shen. TCAF is also grateful for the assistance of Aki Yanagi in helping to manage our participation in these events!

Exhibiting Groups:

Celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2017, The Beguiling is North America’s finest comic book specialty shop. Located in Toronto, Canada, The Beguiling carries the most diverse and eclectic array of comics imaginable, from art comix and indies to superheroes to BD to manga and more! The Beguiling also represents the original art sales of dozens of fantastic artists, check out beguilingbooksandart.com for everything!

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Founded in 2007, Koyama Press is a Toronto-based small press. Our mandate is to promote and support a wide range of emerging and established artists. Projects include comics, graphic novels, art books, and zines. We are known for our alternative edge and diverse range of titles that include a myriad of genres from autobiography to photography, from horror to humour, and more.

Exhibiting Authors:

Rupert Bottenberg is a Canadian visual artist with a drawing-based practice (illustration, graphic literature, and more); a writer and editor; a teacher; and an event coordinator. He is the the co-director of the En Masse collaborative art initiative, the former music editor of the Montreal Mirror, the director of Axis, the animation section of the Fantasia Film Festival, and founder of the Montreal Comic Art Jams. In 2012 he released his debut solo book of comix and artwork, Traumstadtdenken (Éditions Trip), which won the annual Bédélys Indépandant award. In 2017, Bottenberg released two books, Traumstadtdenken 2 (Éditions Trip) and Fourscore Phantasmagores (ChiGraphic). Rupert was born in 1971 in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and since the age of two has made Montreal, Quebec his home.

http://enmasse.info/artist/rupert-bottenberg/

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Freddy Carrasco is a Toronto based illustrator whose work is influenced by 90s anime and hastily drawn street art. In his own words, “Everything I do is sort of chasing the feeling I got when I first played Jet Set Radio. That game feels like it was made with zero corporate compromises. It’s 100% cool.” Coming off the heels of his debut book, Hot Summer Nights, Carrasco is back to work on a self-published collection of Sci-Fi short stories titled GLEEM.

Emily Carroll was born in London, Ontario, in June of 1983. She is the author of the critically acclaimed horror short story collection “Through The Woods,” and has illustrated the graphic novel “Baba Yaga’s Assistant” with writer Marika McCoola. In addition to the many short online comics found at her website, emcarroll.com, 2018 will see the release of “Speak: The Graphic Novel,” based on the novel of Laurie Halse Anderson. Emily currently lives with her wife Kate and their large orange cat in Stratford, Ontario.

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Jason Fischer is a cartoonist from Los Angeles who loves food, coffee, demons, statues, cats and stormy beaches. After working with Bryan Lee O’Malley as drawing assistant in Seconds, Jason has been working on his first graphic novel. He made an autobiographical comic called Seconds Helping about working with Bryan on Seconds, sharing his funny and stressful story of working non-stop to finish Seconds by deadline. Last year he produced two comic issues on a new project, Terra Flats. He also works as a color assistant on Zander Cannon’s Kaijumax and other projects.

Hello Boyfriend is a comics collective consisting of 5 friends that met at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Together they make the series “Doki Doki High,” run a Comic Making Club, and push each other to do their best!

Kim Hoang is a member of Love Love Hill — a Canadian collective of comic artists independently self-publishing anthologies of comics, short stories, art zines, and minis, all lovingly bound in handmade volumes, thematically centered around the little whimsical charms in life! Love Love Hill’s latest releases in 2017 are “Super Life On The Hill” and “Expired Seafood: Tied Up.”

Maiji/Mary Huang is a happy little squirrel and also a Taiwanese-Canadian artist/writer based out of Toronto. Her comics, zines and poetry incorporate themes of mythology, introspection, everyday human experiences, and small fat animals. She is the creator of Now Recharging, a slice-of-life webcomic about a sheep-loving android who is bad at math and worried about nonexistence.

An Nguyen, under the pen name Saicoink, has been around since 1997 and makes illustrations, comics, books using binder clips & glue, collages. She also edits and designs books. She is the co-author with Jane Mai of “So Pretty / Very Rotten,” a collection of comics and essays about Lolita street fashion published by Koyama Press. She is also the author of “Open Spaces and Closed Places,” a comic series about dreamy-eyed boys in love.

Bryan Lee O’Malley is a Canadian cartoonist best known for the bestselling, award-winning Oni Press series “Scott Pilgrim” (2004-2010). “Scott Pilgrim” was adapted into a critically-acclaimed major motion picture (from Universal) and video game (from Ubisoft) in 2010. In 2014 he released the bestselling graphic novel “Seconds” and his most recent series, “Snotgirl,” is published monthly from Image Comics. O’Malley lives in Los Angeles, where he continues to make comics.

Mike Parsons is a Toronto based fine artist who uses black and white ink drawings, comic books, graffiti street art, and animations to express an optimistic warning towards future days.“HEY APATHY!” is an ongoing artistic investigation into the city, people, monsters and existence in general. Since 2001 the “HEY APATHY!” artworks have been featured in over 25 major exhibitions winning awards and honors from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Ramón K Pérez is the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award winning cartoonist best known for his graphic novel adaptation of Jim Henson’s “Tale Of Sand,” and his most recent release is a modern day adaptation of the Bronte Sisters’ classic “Jane Eyre,” entitled “Jan.”. Ramón has also collaborated as illustrator on “All-New Hawkeye” and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “NOVA,” and “Wolverine and The X-Men” for Marvel Comics, and the creator-owned series’ Butternutsquash and Kukuburi, among a long history of work. Ramón resides in Toronto, Canada.

Marcus To is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and storyteller who lives in Toronto, Canada. Throughout his career Marcus has drawn virtually every DC superhero, having worked on Red Robin, Huntress, Batwing, Flash, and Wonder Woman. His current work includes his creator owned book Joyride as well as one of the regular artists on Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel comics He is a proud member of the RAID Studio.

Andrew Wheeler is a UK-born, Toronto-based writer of comics and other fictions. Author of the graphic novel “Another Castle: Grimoire” and the novel “Valentin and The Widow,” both released in 2017, Wheeler is currently turning his talents to the espionage thriller “Freelance,” co-written with Jim Zub. When not writing, Wheeler is Communications Director for Canadian Publisher Chapterhouse Publishing.

Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past fifteen years he’s worked for a diverse array of publishing, movie and video game clients including Marvel, DC Comics, Capcom, Hasbro, Cartoon Network, and Bandai-Namco. His current comic projects include Avengers: No Surrender, Uncanny Avengers, Dungeons & Dragons, and the creator-owned series’ Glitterbomb and Wayward. In addition to his freelance comic writing, Jim is the Program Coordinator for Seneca College‘s award-winning Animation program, where he also lectures on the History of Animation, Layout and Character Animation.

Founded in 1946, The National Cartoonists Society is a worldwide organization which represents more than 600 of world’s top cartoonists. www.reuben.org. The NCS will be exhibiting at Kaigai Manga Festa, Comic Art Tokyo, and as TCAF’s guests on the Friday and Saturday of Tokyo Comic-Con.

Steve McGarry is one of the most-prolific British Artists of all time! Over his 40 year career he has worked for numerous publications creating comics, illustrating, designing, and much more. He has designed albums for Joy Division, and was a storyboard artist for Minions and Despicable Me 2. He is the president of The National Cartoonists Society. He lives in Los Angeles, USA. http://stevemcgarry.com/

Luke McGarry is best known to online fans for his “Sad Chewie” series of illustrations! An artist, animator, and designer, Luke has worked with a range of top clients including Jack Black and Tenacious D, Myspace, Vans Shoes, IFC, the NHL, VISA, and much more besides! He has received the Silver T-Squre award from The National Cartoonists Society. He lives in Los Angeles, USA. http://lukemcgarry.com/

Saturday, May 12th, 2018, from 9am-5pm
Sunday, May 13th, 2018, from 10am-5pm

In addition, we will also be doing streams of professional development programming including the CSSC academic conference, Librarian & Educator Day, and Word Balloon Academy programs on Friday, May 11th, though there is currently no plan for public-facing programming on that day.

If you have any questions please hit us up! registration@torontocomics.com.

October 14-15, 2017, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival hosted a contingent of Canadian artists and writers at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, UK. Following reasonable criticism about the racial diversity of the festival’s guest list, LICAF’s initial Twitter response was unacceptably insensitive and unprofessional. Over the following week, events unfolded that ultimately led to severe harassment directed towards British comics critic and publisher Zainab Akhtar, as well as to many of the cartoonists pulling out of LICAF.

After conversations with TCAF staff and volunteers, as well as with cartoonists and other stakeholders in the TCAF community, we agree it is important to comment on this situation and more generally on our partnership with LICAF.

TCAF has worked closely with LICAF since its inception in 2013. Initially acting as festival consultants our relationship has grown into a cultural exchange program, with us sending Canadian cartoonists to LICAF and welcoming UK cartoonists to TCAF. With such closeness, we understand how LICAF’s self-admittedly poor handling of the criticism reflects on TCAF, as well as how TCAF’s silence could be read as a blanket approval of LICAF’s actions and an unwillingness to engage with these issues head-on.

To be clear, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival fully condemns the racist harassment and threats directed towards Zainab Akhtar, as well as the vitriol directed towards creators who chose to exhibit or not exhibit at LICAF 2017.

We also agree with LICAF that their initial Twitter response and communications were inappropriate, and that they have caused stress and heartache to Zainab and others.

We take very seriously our mission to promote Canadian cartoonists around the world. When partnering with festivals abroad, our goal is to share our values and to support an inclusive and thriving comics community. As much as possible, we take responsibility for the experiences of the cartoonists we bring to these exchanges. Both in terms of artistic growth and career development, we try to provide Canadian artists with excellent international opportunities. On this trip we learned in a very real way that we must take more steps to ensure that our partners share and live our organizational values.

This statement does not come from a place of moral superiority above LICAF or the criticism raised around the inclusiveness of race and religion at comics festivals. TCAF aims to create a festival that represents the experiences and identities of everyone who attends, but we still have plenty of work to do. Like LICAF, we are having our own internal discussions about how we can create a better TCAF through a more equitable and anti-oppressive lens. This is work we are still doing, and we look forward to proving our commitment with action. If you would like to offer feedback to TCAF, please reach out to us at contact@torontocomics.com.

While TCAF had not planned to participate in a cultural exchange with LICAF in 2018, we welcome festival administrators or affiliated cartoonists who want to attend TCAF to continue the work of developing more inclusive festivals. It is only together that we are able to make widespread changes and impacts across the comics industry. We are choosing to be optimistic about LICAF’s statements in regards to making their festival more equitable for marginalized creators, and we will be keeping their follow-through in mind as we evaluate the potential to partner again in 2019.

This incident highlights the need for comics festivals around the world, TCAF very much among them, to work harder and with urgency, both to build comics communities that value criticism, and to implement real change that fosters inclusion and diversity.

Thank you for reading, thank you for your patience, and thank you to our community for continually holding us to task and holding us to a high standard.

Applications for TCAF 2018 are now closed.

Applications were open from August 14th – October 31st, 2017.

TCAF 2018 will feature a day of Professional Development Programming on Friday May 11th, with the main exhibition on Saturday May 12th and Sunday May 13th, 2018, at Toronto Reference Library in sunny Toronto, Canada. We are now accepting applications for comics creators who are interested in exhibiting at the festival.

Creators who submitted an application on time will be contacted with their results starting on December 18th.

Because of the high volume of submissions we have historically received, preference for exhibition space will be given to:

Presented in association with the Goethe-Institut, Internationaler Comic-Salon Erlangen, Germany @ Canada 2017: Partners from Immigration to Innovation, the Federal Foreign Office and the German Comics Association

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to welcome a special pavilion of cartoonists, publishers, associations, and gallery shows from Germany! Germany is home to a thriving comics and artistic scene, and at TCAF 2017 you’ll be able to sample some of the diverse wares, thanks to a special international exchange between TCAF and Internationaler Comic-Salon Erlangen in Germany, with the incredible support of the Goethe-Institut. The pavilion is located on the second floor of Toronto Reference Library in the Appel Salon. TCAF will travel to Erlangen in 2018 with a cadre of Canadian cartoonists, to complete the exchange.

Exhibiting in the pavilion will be cartoonists Anna Haifisch, Ulli Lust, and Martina Schradi, as well as Internationaler Comic-Salon Erlangen and The German Comics Association, and German comics publisher Rotopol (who will also be present but exhibiting on Toronto Reference Library’s first floor, so look for them there). The Pavilion will also house 3 small art exhibitions, including: “Ach, So Ist Das? (Oh, is that so?),” a survey of contemporary LGBTI society; a survey of contemporary German comics curated by comics journalist Lars von Törne for the Frankfurt Book Fair and presented here in collaboration with the German Comics Association; a selection of prints by Anna Haifisch. Details on all exhibitions below!

International Comic Salon Erlangen

Held every two years in Erlangen, Germany (near Munich!), the International Comic Salon Erlangen is the most important German-language comic event, with more than 25,000 visitors, hundreds of participating artists, art exhibitions, presentations, and more! At TCAF, Erlangen staffers Michael Jordan and Lars von Törne will represent the festival with a selection of materials from the history of the festival, including a display of past and present festival posters.

German Comics Association

The German Comics Association exists to promote German comics abroad, and at this event the organization’s Axel Halling and Stefan Neuhaus will be present with a display of German-created graphic novels in English, French, and the original German to browse and purchase, should you be interested.

This table will also have a billingual English/German catalogue of work by German cartoonists (click here to view it), curated by Lars Von Torne, for those looking to translate and publish works in English (or just navigate the world of German comics!). An exhibition based on this book will also be presented in this area. The book table and the exhibition will both be presented in collaboration with the German Comics Association and the Federal Foreign Office.

Anna Haifisch

Anna Haifisch’s idiosyncratic comic strips chronicle the experiences of an artist in his formative years, satirizing the exclusive, and at times, absurd, nature of the fine art world. Plagued with doubt, the artist is confronted by setbacks punctuated with occasional glimpses of recognition. Based on Haifisch’s own experiences as an illustrator in Germany and the US, The Artist has most recently run as a serialized comic in Vice Magazine to critical acclaim, and is published in by Breakdown Press.

Anna Haifisch will be exhibiting 20 pieces of work from her recent work at The German Comics Pavilion.

Ulli Lust

Ulli Lust, born 1967 in Vienna, is an Austrian cartoonist who lives and works in Berlin. Her graphic novel Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life was translated into English and published by Fantagraphics Books in 2013. In 2013, Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life won an Ignatz Award for best graphic novel, the LA Times Book Award for Graphic Novels and then in 2014 was nominated for an Eisner Award for best reality-based work. The New York Review of Comics will publish the English translation of Voices in the Dark, Ulli Lust’s adaptation of Marcel Beyer’s novel which is set in Berlin during the Nazi era, in Fall 2017. Ulli Lust also teaches at Hannover Art School in Germany, and will be traveling with some of her students and have some student work and school information available.

Ulli is attending TCAF with the support of the Austrian Cultural Institute.

Martina Schradi and “Ach, So Ist Das?”

Martina Schradi is a German author, cartoonist and certified psychologist from Nuremberg. She is known for Ach, So Ist Das? or Oh, I see?!, a collection of comics depicting the daily lives and struggles of people in the LGBT*I community. This book will debut in English at TCAF 2017, and it will also be transformed into an English language exhibition to be displayed at TCAF. After successfully exhibiting her work, Schradi began travelling throughout Germany to conduct workshops and readings. These workshops are designed to inform people on how to use her comics to fight prejudice.

Martina is attending TCAF as part of a cultural exchange with Comic-Salon Erlangen and the Goethe-Institut Toronto.

Signing Times:

Saturday May 13th

12-1 p.m. Martina Schradi

1- 2 p.m. Ulli Lust

2-3 p.m. Anna Haifisch, Rita Fürstenau

3-4 p.m Nadine Redlich

Sunday May 14th

12-1 p.m. Martina Schradi

3-4 p.m. Anna Haifisch, Carmen José

4-5 p.m. Ulli Lust

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Our thanks to the Goethe-Institut, The Austrian Cultural Institute, Comic Salon Erlangen, and Lars Von Torne for their support of this exhibit.

In association with Germany @ Canada 2017: Partners from Immigration to Innovation

The sixth annual Comics x Games (formerly known as Comics vs Games) is coming your way for TCAF 2017 – And they have quit a line-up planned!

Since 2012, TCAF has partnered with the Hand Eye Society for Comics x Games, fostering collaboration between the independent game and comic communities through a variety of projects, partnerships and events. Read below for more info on the the Comics x Games Jam, panels, and all of the exhibiting games!

The Hand Eye Society is a Toronto not-for-profit dedicated to supporting and showcasing videogames made primarily as a form of creative expression. They aim to provide exhibition opportunities, education, creative support, mentorship, knowledge sharing and inspiration to artists, enthusiasts, and the game-curious in Toronto.

As Publishers and other exhibitors at the Festival firm up their plans for TCAF 2017, we’re happy to announce that a number of additional creators have been announced to be attending TCAF 2017! Here’s a quick overview of some of the recent additions to TCAF 2017:

Colleen Coover will be attending TCAF as a guest of Oni Press / Limerence Press, who will be debuting the brand new Small Favours: The Definitive Girly Porno Comic, a wonderful erotic comic series in a new, complete edition. Colleen will be exhibiting at the Oni Press table.

Ray Fawkes will be exhibiting at TCAF in support of his new series Underwinter, from Image Comics. Ray will be at the Masonic Temple, for the Image 25th Celebration.

Zach Hazard Vaupen will attend TCAF in support of his new work from Retrofit.

Luke Healy will be attending TCAF (all the way from Ireland) in support of the new printing of his book How To Survive in the North, by Nobrow.

Laura Ķeniņš will attend TCAF in support of her new book Steam Clean, from Retrofit.

Dave McKean, as announced, will be attending TCAF for the Canadian Premiere of Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, a multimedia performance based on his most recent graphic novel. Dave appears with the support of LICAF, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, and Dark Horse Comics.

There will be more announcements to come, too! Thanks for reading, and we’ll keep updating you as more publishers confirm their plans!

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival and Wowee Zonk proudly present the Wowee Zonk Small Press Showcase for 2017. Curated by Toronto Artists Chris Kuzma, Ginette Lapalme and Patrick Kyle, the Wowee Zonk Small Press Showcase highlights some of the best and most exciting work being made in comics, zines, and independent publishing.

See below for the entire list of artists! You’ll be able to find all these fantastic folks in the Browsery at the Toronto Reference Library.

Brown, DeForge, Doucet, Oliveros, Martz lead nominations for 2017 Doug Wright AwardsNeil the Horse cartoonist and journalist Katherine Collins headed to Giants of the North Hall of Fame

April 13, 2017, Toronto, ON — Nominees were announced this morning for the 13th annual Doug Wright Awards, which recognize the best work and most promising talent in Canadian comics. Sixteen comic creators and works are nominated in three categories. In addition, Katherine Collins, author and artist of the groundbreaking comic Neil the Horse Comics and Stories, was named as this year’s inductee to the Giants of the North, aka the Canadian cartoonist hall of fame. The Doug Wright Awards will be a featured event at the 2017 Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), which takes place at the Toronto Reference Library, May 13-14.

Nominees for the 2017 Pigskin Peters Award, presented for the most experimental, unconventional or avant-garde comic:

Carpet Sweeper Tales by Julie Doucet (Drawn & Quarterly)

Draw Blood by Ron Hotz (self-published)

Garbage by Matthew Reichertz (Conundrum Press)

After Land by Chris Taylor (Floating World Comics)

Palace of Champions by Henriette Valium (Conundrum Press)

This year’s inductee to the Giants of the North Canadian cartoonist hall of fame, which celebrates creators who have made a life-long contribution to the field, is pioneering cartoonist and accomplished comics journalist Katherine Collins.

Ms. Collins was known as Arn Saba before transitioning into a woman in 1993. Saba’s mother and great-grandmother both were published cartoonists and Saba became encouraged to start drawing comics himself at the age of six. Saba spent several years contributing to Morningside, CBC Radio’s popular national morning show, where he carved out a niche as a commentator on comics and cartoonists. In 1979 he produced and hosted The Continuous Art, a five-part documentary series for CBC Radio that explored the cultural ghettoization of comics via interviews with cartoonists Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, Milton Caniff, Walt Kelly, and Gil Kane, among others.

Saba’s character Neil the Horse appeared in newspapers from 1975 to 1982, and in 15 issues of his own self-titled comic book series, published by Aardvark-Vanaheim and Renegade Press, between 1983 and 1988. Neil the Horse Comics and Stories was the first (and according to Collins, last) musical comic book, featuring original songs and a cast of characters that appeared to have stepped out of a Max Fleischer cartoon. Collins will be a featured guest at TCAF this year and will attend the 2017 Doug Wright Awards to accept her honour in person.

Finalists for this year’s awards were chosen from more than 150 works published during the 2016 calendar year. This year’s nominating committee consisted of Sean Rogers, Joe Ollmann and Betty Liang. The jury for the 13th annual Doug Wright Awards includes: Dakota McFadzean, cartoonist and 2016 Doug Wright Award winner; Sue Carter, editor of Quill & Quire and book columnist for Metro.

The winners of the 2017 Doug Wright Awards will be presented at a ceremony held in the Forest Hill Ballroom at The Marriott Bloor Yorkville hotel, 90 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario on May 13. Admission is free, but limited.

The Doug Wright Awards were founded in 2005 to recognize the best English-language comics (or translations from French) published in Canada by Canadian cartoonists. The awards are named for Doug Wright (1917–1983), creator of Nipper/Doug Wright’s Family, one of the most widely recognized Canadian comic strips of the 20th century.

About The Toronto Comic Arts Festival

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is a weeklong celebration of comics and graphic novels and their creators, which culminates in a two-day exhibition and vendor fair featuring hundreds of comics creators from around the world. Additional festival events include readings, interviews, panels, workshops, gallery shows, art installations, and much more. TCAF is held at Toronto Reference Library in Toronto, Canada, and in the surrounding neighbourhood, and is presented by Toronto Public Library and The Beguiling Books & Art. For more information visit torontocomics.com.

TORONTO, CANADA:TCAF, The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is excited to announce that it will host a celebration for the 25th Anniversary of groundbreaking comic book publisher Image Comics!

Special guests, amazing programming, and even a dedicated venue will thrill fans old and new alike at TCAF 2017, taking place May 13th and 14th, 2017, in Toronto, Canada. Image Comics is the largest publisher of creator-owned comic books in North America, with notable titles including The Walking Dead, Saga, The Wicked + The Divine, and Toronto’s own Sex Criminals, reaching beyond ‘mainstream’ comics’ traditional borders to bring in new readers, promote fairer contracts, and publish some great work!

We are looking for a ~30 hour/week Retail Assistant Manager to help manage and guide the daily operations of our comic book / apparel / gift store, Page & Panel: The TCAF Shop, located at 789 Yonge Street!

Candidates should have retail supervisory or management experience as well as a strong understanding of the Comics publishing industry, ranging from Marvel, DC, and Image to Pantheon and Koyama Press. Other retail experience is also highly valued, as Page & Panel carries a wide range of apparel, stationery, gift, and other goods. The ideal candidate has several years’ experience working in book stores and/or comic shops.

Page & Panel: The TCAF Shop exists to further TCAF’s overall mandate:

to promote the breadth and diversity of comics, and what is considered comics, as legitimate medium of literary and artistic worth. We seek to promote the creators of these works in their broad and diverse voices, for the betterment of the medium of comics and to reach as wide an audience as possible for them

Responsibilities would include:

Delighting customers and building repeat business

Merchandising planned and ad-hoc displays for multiple product lines

Using our inventory management system, run restock reports and place reorders as appropriate

Planning and overseeing in-store promotions and events

Scheduling staff to maximize coverage within budget

Assigning tasks and providing feedback and coaching to staff

Working with the TCAF Managing Director to ensure Page & Panel meets fiscal and other goals

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is looking for a team of volunteers who would like to help welcome and orient cartoonists who are guests and exhibitors at TCAF!

Every year, TCAF hosts over 400 artists and publishers from all over the world to share and celebrate the wide world of comics. It’s the first time in Toronto for most of these people, and it’s important to us that they feel welcomed in a new city! Also, international travel right now is stressful enough for people. We want to be able to offer folks some travel support to help going to a new city less overwhelming.

With this in mind, we’re looking to get a team of volunteers who want to be on TCAF’s Welcome Team. Duties would include:

Picking up Guests from the airport.

Attending TCAF’s trip to Niagara Falls.

Assembling welcome bags and packages for Featured Guests.

Assisting with exhibitor check-in and registration.

Proactively reaching out to exhibitors who have requested that festival representatives check-in that they made it to Toronto safely.

Answering incoming exhibitor questions about Toronto and the festival. These will be volunteer shifts in the week leading up to TCAF, at the TCAF office

Being on-call at the information stations to answer questions, with the TCAF Guidebook downloaded as reference..

Other activities related to festival hospitality.

So with that being said, we’re looking for people who are:

Friendly, welcoming, and sociable!

Available in the week(s) leading up to TCAF for prep work and in-office shifts.

Comfortable using spreadsheets.

Good at maintaining multiple schedules, and have an eye for details.

Familiar with Toronto (amenities and attractions) and TCAF.

Able to work independently and problem solve away from the team.

Able to use a smartphone to download the Guidebook App.

Capable of driving and have a valid driver’s license (this is an asset, not requirement)

Able to speak one or more languages other than English (this is an asset, not requirement).

We will be privileging applicants who have worked or volunteered with TCAF previously, or who have strong backgrounds in volunteering.

If you would like more information, or are interested in volunteering with TCAF’s Welcome Team, please contact Dan (our Volunteer Coordinator) at volunteer@torontocomics.com. We will be taking up to 5 people to be on the Welcome Team. The deadline to apply is March 31th, 2017.

Guidebook is an app that acts as a program guide to your favourite events and programming, as well as a handy reference for all of your favourite artists and exhibitors.

It helps your craft a personalized schedule so that you don’t miss a panel, a presentation, a workshop, a screening, or gallery show. It also lets you create things like To Do lists, so you won’t forget to check out your favourite artists’ tables.

In the coming weeks we’ll be adding things like off-site events, venue maps, programming, as well as up-to-date listings for Exhibitors and Featured Guests!

Koyama Press, the vital hometown publishing house, turns 10 this year! And so they’re making this TCAF a big one! With 6 essential debuts from 7 of the freshest voices in the medium, Koyama Press and crew are reminding us that comics (especially Canadian comics) wouldn’t be the same without them. Heck, it’s even hard just to remember a TCAF with out them! Helping KP ring in entering the double-digits are:

Hey there! Every year we need about 250 volunteers to help make TCAF a success. Want to contribute? Head over to http://www.torontocomics.com/volunteer-information/ and let us know if you can help out!

FEBRUARY 21, TORONTO: The Toronto Comic Arts Festival continues its incredible 2017 Festival announcements with its Kids and Young Adult Guests and Programming! Perfect for kids and teens as well as everyone who loves comics for young people, TCAF’s extensive Kids and YA Programs offer a chance to meet and interact with some of the biggest names in publishing!

Every year, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival showcases Canada’s incredible comics talent on a world stage. We do this by inviting publishers and exhibitors from all over the world to share what comics mean to them, and to stand side-by-side with some of the best and brightest that Canada has to offer! Let us introduce you to some of our International Featured Guests, who are from just a few of the over 20 countries that will be represented at TCAF 2017:

TCAF 2017 – The Toronto Comic Arts Festival

TORONTO, CANADA — We here at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival are pumped and excited to announce our initial Featured Guests and Events for TCAF 2017! With over 400 cartoonists from more than 20 countries on their way to Toronto this May, we’re getting ready celebrate the very best in comics, graphic novels, bandes dessinées, and manga! Prepare yourself for a week of readings, launches, and art events culminating in a massive, FREE two-day exhibition at Toronto Reference Library, May 13 and 14, 2017! Tell your friends!

Every year the Toronto Comic Arts Festival showcases Canada’s incredible comics talent on a world stage by promoting some of our best and brightest creators and publishers, and inviting the attention of the global cartooning community. The 2017 programme builds on our previous successes, with a continued commitment to offer more engaging programming, in multiple formats, focusing on compelling and challenging work being made across the world. Art sales and exhibition, increased programming, and gallery shows are once again at the core of the 2017 programme.

The Hand Eye Society is holding an open call for videogames to showcase on-site at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (May 13th and 14th) as part of this year’s Comics x Games 6!Comics x Games (formerly known as Comics vs Games) fosters collaboration between the independent game and comic communities through a variety of projects, partnerships and events. Every year with our partners during the TCAF, we present unique, game-focused content — from arcades and gallery shows, to panels and talks. It’s a great opportunity to expose your game to TCAF’s diverse audience of over 20,000 visitors.